On Feb 8 we traveled by bus to Liberty University in Lynchburg for the VA Southwest Mathcounts Chapter competition.

The following students represented BMS: (from left to right) Moses Park, Franklin Liu, Matthew Cao, Theta Back, Abraham Du, Sara Awate, Avi Vijayan, XiXi Liu, Jacob Ji, Giang Nguyen, Michael Yang, Maximilian Li, Natalia Migan-Gandonou, and Alexander Keptsovich.

The BMS team and contestants won several prizes.

Team Competition Results​

1. Place: Franklin Liu, Matthew Cao, Maximilian Li, Theta Back

Individual Competition Results​

1. Place: Franklin Liu
3. Place: Theta Back

The Top 25% of competitors were listed; we swept 11 of the 12 spots.

Countdown Round Results​

2. Place: Franklin Liu
3. Place: Theta Back
4. Place: Natalia Migan-Gandonou

In total, we advanced 9 students to the Countdown Round. The others were Moses Park, Matthew Cao, Abraham Du, Avi Vijayan, Jacob Ji, and Michael Yang.

Advancing to State​

At this point, we know that the 4 teams members

• Franklin Liu
• Matthew Cao
• Maximilian Li
• Theta Back

will advance to state. Individual contestants are still being decided. The State round will take place March 22 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Congratulations to all!

Thank you to Mrs. Marti Hale for sponsoring Mathcounts this year and accompanying us on the trip and thank you to principal Dr. Johnson for supporting it.

On Jan 27 our school contest took place. 31 students took part. Ms. Hale and 10 Ut Prosim Volunteers from Virginia Tech managed the preparation, proctoring, and grading of the contest independently.

Overall Results​

The top three contestants overall were:

1. Place: Theta Back
2. Place: Franklin Liu
3. Place: Maximilian Li

In 6th Grade​

1. Place: Franklin Liu
2. Place: Maximilian Li
3. Place: Avi Vijayan

In 7th Grade​

1. Place: Giáng Nguyen
2. Place: XiXi Liu
3. Place: Natalia Migan-Gandonou

In 8th Grade​

1. Place: Theta Back
2. Place: Matthew Cao
3. Place: Sara Awate

Congratulations to these students! I have also notified those students who have qualified for the Chapter competition based on the school contest results and the practice points. We will head to Lynchburg on February 8.

I have sent detailed results for every registered student to their parent via email. Here is a histogram of all scores. Hopefully we'll see some of the participating students next year in Mathcounts!

For those wishing to do extra practice, here are some additional sets:

• Warmup 14
• Workout 4
• Workout 8

We reviewed Workouts 2 + 6 and discussed Gaussian Elimination and Reduced Row Echelon Form.

• Slide Set

If you missed the meeting, you can practice using this set:

• Workout 3
• Workout 7

Recommended Alcumus topics (under Algebra):

• Solving Two-Variable Systems
• Two Variable Word Problems
• Advanced Systems of Equations

We discussed binomial coefficients and the binomial theorem.

• Slide Set

Recommended Alcumus topics (under Counting and Probability):

• Pascal's Triangle
• Binomial Theorem